The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

I had a rather surreal experience over the weekend. Before I delve into what happened, I'll provide some backstory.  In 1996, when I was 15 years old and a sophomore in high school, I was introduced to a musician, via 101.9 The Edge in Omaha, who actually spoke to me. That musician was none other than Marilyn Manson. You can read the more detailed reason(s) why his music and interviews connected with me in a blog I'll provide here in parentheses ( https://thekind-heartedsmartaleck.blogspot.com/2021/01/how-music-saved-my-life.html ), but I'll now give you the condensed version of events. In the summer of '89, when I was just 8 years old, a babysitter, big-brother type, and I thought friend, stopped by to play Ice Hockey with me on the original Nintendo. My mom was away at Vacation Bible School; my brother was at a friend's; and my dad was in the basement, watching television. While my babysitter and I were playing the game, I won't go into details here, but he s...

I can't believe I haven't blogged about this before. I guess I just kind of assumed I did back in 2005 or 2006, but I'm pretty certain I didn't. Anyway, while some may not enjoy the music of shock rocker Marilyn Manson or of their theatrics and/or controversy, I find the man and the band to be quite fascinating. The music is not what interested me at first, but the lyrics and interviews. That hooked me and I haven't let up since. Lyrically speaking, I found the band's triptych to be the most fascinating. As mentioned in the title of this blog, this started with the album "Antichrist Svperstar" in 1996, continued with "Mechanical Animals" in 1998 and finished with "Holywood (In the Valley of the Shadow of Death)" in 2000. Musically speaking, it was very interesting as well, as "Antichrist Svperstar" was very much industrial metal. "Mechanical Animals" was more space rock. Finally, "Holywood" was mo...